Cherry Fingers
by KarotsaMused
Summary: A conversation between Gojyo and Hakkai on the journey over some laundry and a basket of cherries. [58]


A/N: Obligatory Disclaimer: I wouldn't own those four for all the chocolate in the world. But I like to watch 'em in action o.-  
  
Hello, hello, this is just a dumb little scene I pounded out while eating (big surprise!) cherries. No, I wasn't smoking menthols, sorry. Those are a motif that goes -way- back with a friend of mine, and I had to use 'em. Hee.   
  
Warnings: Shounen-ai/yaoi/whatever you want to call it 585; sort of spoilery, I suppose. Musings upon cherries, laundry, and birthdays. And the ending's =really= stupid but hey there you go. Oh, and fanservice like crazy. I won't spoil it, but I'm sure Gojyo's glad it's a warm day out...  
  
Reviews always welcomed, eh heh  
  
Enjoy!  
  
...  
  
Kami-sama, did he ever love cherries. Fat, succulent, red-black cherries with pits you could spit through a pane of glass if you got the angle just right. He grabbed another from the basket on the table and bit it off the stem. They were one of the few foods he didn't eat in a race with Goku. Cherries were to be savored. He liked the way they left sour pockets in the back of his mouth and the way it was so easy to tie the stems in knots with his tongue. He was rather proud of that bit. And cherries, cherries were fantastic with cigarettes. Especially cigarettes with menthol. He'd paid the extra money for them this time, just because he knew cherries were in season. He knew Hakkai would get them for him. And, Kami-sama, he had. A whole basket.  
  
Hakkai was thoughtful like that. He knew Gojyo's birthday even when Gojyo didn't know Gojyo's birthday. The redhead couldn't even remember telling him, but he'd always buy him something small. Like menthol cigarettes or a new calendar. Something that had some use, but that wasn't normally on the grocery list. And Gojyo would have to remember how old he was and that he didn't know Hakkai's birthday. He knew Hakkai in the rawest sense, but knew nearly nothing -about- him. That gave him the same sort of feeling as he had when he shoved his tongue into the sore, sour spots the cherries left behind his molars.  
  
Hakkai walked into the room then, his arms laden with clothes. He smiled at Gojyo, who immediately brought the leg nearest Hakkai up and crossed it over the other. Even Gojyo had limits to his reckless lack of modesty. He harbored within him absolutely no desire to make Hakkai unduly uncomfortable. Alright, maybe just a little. "Wan' cherry?" he asked around the cigarette, waggling juice-stained fingers at the brunette.  
  
It was so hard to faze him. Hakkai shook his head, rummaging in the pile for something. "How did you -ever- make it up from the baths?" he asked, shooting one more glance over to the redhead. "Sanzo and Goku are still down there. I brought -them- their clean laundry." Gojyo had a brief moment of introspection at Hakkai bringing clothes to those two in the baths. Hakkai probably knew their birthdays too, and what kind of underwear they wore. Goku was a white-boxer-briefs sort of kid, but Sanzo was completely another matter. Gojyo sometimes wondered exactly what it was the monk had on under his robes. Hakkai knew. Hakkai knew about all of them. What did Hakkai wear?  
  
"What about you? Your clothes are still dirty, right?" Gojyo raised his eyebrows as Hakkai ever-so-gently shook his head. "You washed 'em? Here? Hakkai, you dirty exhibitionist." Gojyo pushed certain mental images far, far aside as he was in a rather compromising state that would worsen should his body decide to respond to his imagination.  
  
Hakkai found what he was looking for and dangled the article from one hand. "Says the man who, I'm sure, caused quite a few nosebleeds on his way back to his room." He grinned as he snapped the waistband and the boxers sailed in a perfect arc across the room. They landed in Gojyo's lap. Dark blue. They'd just happened to be one of the only colored pairs of boxers he'd owned, that day he and Hakkai had met up with Sanzo and Goku to leave. Loved, definitely loved, the elastic worn almost to the point of being useless. Normally, this didn't matter, as they were often on their way off if they were bared to the world at all.  
  
The redhead shrugged, a grin curving his own features. He got up and slid into the clean fabric, patting his hips when he was at least decently clothed. "Hey, I'll have you know I stole a towel. One of the girls followed to get it back from me, is all." When Hakkai shot him an 'I'm-so-sure' look, Gojyo laughed. "She only got the towel. Really. And, hell, it's a warm day. Which, I'm sure, you've had the pleasure of experiencing."  
  
Hakkai took a seat across from Gojyo, looking at him over the basket of cherries. The redhead took a long drag and motioned to the basket. Hakkai finally took one, securing the fruit with his teeth and yanking out the stem. "I'll have you know," he murmured, spitting out the pit, "I stole a towel."  
  
Gojyo laughed again. "Uh-huh." He sat down again, rubbing out the cigarette and grabbing another cherry. "Where the hell d'you find these?" he asked, sucking at some juice on his thumb.  
  
Hakkai shrugged. "Here and there. Look to your wrist." Gojyo saw the droplet staining its way down his skin and caught it on his tongue. Hakkai watched him. "From the simple perspective of the man who does the washing, I'm rather thankful you've not put your shirt on yet." When Gojyo leered at him, he laughed a little. "You know how cherry juice stains, of course." In response, Gojyo again wiggled red-violet fingers in Hakkai's direction. Hakkai picked up one of Gojyo's knotted cherry stems and twirled it in his hand. And he raised his eyebrow. "It's wet."  
  
"Only mortals use their hands," Gojyo responded, grinning and popping another cherry into his mouth. The stem jutted from between his lips. "Watch," he said, and it disappeared. Gojyo kept his hands in the air where Hakkai could see them. First, the pit appeared, sucked clean. Then, the knot. "That is what I like to call 'having entirely too much free time.' You tried it?" Hakkai laughed, and Gojyo dropped the stem onto the table. "What do you want to bet the monk can do it faster, huh?" Gojyo added with a wry grin.  
  
"You never know," Hakkai responded, spitting out a cherry pit. A few seconds later, he produced a knotted stem from his mouth, pulling it tight against his teeth. He smiled when Gojyo gaped at him. "Well, what do you know? That wasn't so hard, really."  
  
Gojyo turned away, propping his elbow on the table. "Just you stuff it," he said, laughter behind his pout. It wasn't long before he cocked his head to again watch Hakkai. The brunette had already knotted another stem and pulled it tight, dropping it onto the table and sucking on his finger. Doing someone's laundry was having power over them. Cooking their food. Caring for them. There was a measure of trust, of reliance one had on someone that did these things. And Hakkai accepted these tasks without comment. Gojyo grinned a bit. What a control-freak.  
  
He dragged a finger through the mess of pits and stems on the table and made a show of examining the digit. "Got a spot on you."  
  
Hakkai looked down at himself. "I don't see it. Show me?" Either he did not see the grin from under the fall of Gojyo's hair or chose not to notice it. Gojyo pointed. Hakkai looked, and shook his head. "I don't see anything."  
  
"You're blind," Gojyo responded, getting up and putting a hand on Hakkai's shoulder. "Your entire mouth's purple." He grinned and bent down to plant a kiss on the stained skin, leaning Hakkai back into the chair. Cherry and menthol and nicotine-tar. Best flavors in the world, even better on Hakkai. He snaked his tongue into the brunette's willing mouth and felt him smile. He pulled away for breath and smiled back into green eyes. "Want to?"  
  
"Not now." Hakkai's eyes darted toward the door. Sanzo and Goku could only drowse in the baths for so long. Already, they were pushing it.  
  
"But I'm all dressed up. Come on, your fault you made me horny."  
  
Hakkai laughed as Gojyo kissed him again. "Not something I can help." Cherries left sour places in Hakkai's mouth as well. Gojyo shuddered as he caught one and desperately wanted to find another. His search was cut short, however, when the door slammed open.  
  
"Hey! Cherries!" Goku cried, rushing toward the basket. Gojyo jumped a foot, and Hakkai quickly brought a hand up to wipe his mouth. Gojyo's shoulders shook in badly-suppressed laughter as he crossed the room to his clothes in an attempt to hide a part of his anatomy not usually so evident. Goku looked up from the food, glancing between Hakkai and Gojyo, and made a face. "Perverted kappa! What the hell were you -doing-?"  
  
Gojyo shrugged. "Hakkai didn't want me to stain my clothes with cherry juice. I'd warn you of the same but you suck food down too fast to even taste it, saru."  
  
"'M nodda saru!" Goku griped around a mouthful of cherries. He spat the seeds out like bullets, and they ricocheted off of the surface of the table. Sanzo, coming through the door at a more leisurely pace, smacked him upside the head.  
  
"Clean those up," he ordered, grimacing at the mess. He sniffed and said, "Menthols. Wasting money again, bakayarou. Be frivolous on your own time."  
  
Gojyo shrugged and pitched the pack at Sanzo. "Have one. I," he continued, wiggling his fingers, "think I need another bath before getting into these nice, clean clothes." He draped them over his arm and strode out in his boxers, surreptitiously bumping a certain brunette with his hip on the way. Hakkai suddenly developed a fixation with his cherry-stained hands.  
  
"I had better make sure he doesn't alarm the maids any more than necessary," he said with a soft smile and excused himself. The door slammed behind him.  
  
Sanzo looked to Goku, shook his head in exasperation, and took a cigarette from the pack. "I don't know what he sees in these things," he muttered, staring at it as if it were a vile thing. He put it in his mouth and lit it anyway. 


End file.
